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Boom boss man got involved... So respected around the world...

Good

Mize goes 3 hitless and scoreless innings. Good news!

and another UK Prime Minister

Bobrob’s 2025 Preseason Prediction #3 – Kerry William Carpenter Going into the 2024 season, one of the big questions for Kerry Carpenter was if he could repeat his breakout season of 2023. And the answer was a resounding, “YES!” After hitting .278/.340/.471 with a 122 OPS+ in 2023, Carpenter hit .284/.345/.587 with a 159 OPS+ in 2024, displaying even more power than ever before. However, due to injury, Carpenter missed over 2 months of the season and only appeared in 87 games but still managed 18 home runs, which was second most on the Tigers after Riley Greene’s 24. Another thing limiting Carpenter’s playing time was that he batted almost exclusively against right-handed pitchers, platooning mostly with Wenceel Perez by the end of the season. And for good reason, as Carpenter struggled mightily against left-handed pitching. Vs. RHP – 264 PA | .305/.363/.631 | 17 HR Vs. LHP – 32 PA | .107/.194/.214 | 1 HR Carpenter has the power of Miguel Cabrera against right-handed pitchers and the power of a typical pitcher when batting against left-handed pitchers. Manager A.J. Hinch will probably like to play the matchups again and platoon Carpenter with those numbers (although Perez wasn’t exactly lighting it up, hitting .209/292/.302 against left-handed pitching). If Carpenter can somehow get 500 plate appearances, he could easily approach 30 home runs (his 6.1 percent home run rate last year would have resulted in 31 home runs in 500 plate appearances). Although it may mean playing against more left-handed pitchers, which will hurt his overall numbers (if the Tigers had acquired another big bat, like Alex Bregman, it would be easier to sit Carpenter against left-handed pitchers). As far as other rates in 2025, Carpenter had a 25.3 percent strikeout rate, right in line with his 25.6 percent career strikeout rate. His 7.4 percent walk rate was slightly better than his career 6.9 percent walk rate. Most impressive might be his 13.2 percent extra base hit rate, which is right with Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani’s 13.5 percent extra base hit rate, tied for best in baseball in 2024. Although Carpenter did have a smaller sample size and may not be able to repeat it if given more playing time. Kerry Carpenter is only entering his age 27 season and is on the verge of entering his prime years. However, he is a hard one to predict, given if he will be able to stay healthy, what his playing time is going to be, how much of his less than full season of work was luck based and how much he will continue to improve. One thing for certain, though, is that his power is very much real and he will likely have more than a few exciting at bats in 2025, like his game-winning home run in game two of the ALDS against the best closer in baseball last year, Emanual Clase. Experts’ Predictions/Projections: FGDC – 451 AB | .255/.317/.466 | 22 HR | 74 RBI | 3 SB | 35 BB | 124 K Steamer – 450 AB | .255/.317/.467 | 23 HR | 71 RBI | 3 SB | 36 BB | 124 K ZiPS DC – 451 AB | .255/.317/.464 | 22 HR | 76 RBI | 2 SB | 35 BB | 123 K ATC – 438 AB | .256/.319/.472 | 22 HR | 71 RBI | 3 SB | 35 BB | 121 K THE BAT X – 434 AB | .250/.317/.453 | 20 HR | 64 RBI | 4 SB | 38 BB | 119 K OOPSY – 452 AB | .256/.315/.463 | 22 HR | 66 RBI | 4 SB | 34 BB | 123 K RotoChamp – 438 AB | .256/.325/.468 | 22 HR | 68 RBI | 3 SB | 35 BB | 120 K CBS Sports – 482 AB | .286/.349/.556 | 31 HR | 90 RBI | 5 SB | 40 BB | 134 K ESPN – 435 AB | .271/.333/.529 | 27 HR | 77 RBI | 2 SB | 34 BB | 122 K My Prediction: 2024 Prediction – 473 AB | .262/.330/.467 | 24 HR | 68 RBI | 7 SB | 39 BB | 118 K 2024 Actual – 264 AB | .284/.345/.587 | 18 HR | 57 RBI | 0 SB | 22 BB | 75 K 2025 Prediction – 454 AB | .262/.325/.526 | 28 HR | 70 RBI | 1 SB | 36 BB | 125 K

Got some chase and lazy flies on the high fastball, probably left too many sliders in the middle of the plate for next month. Will need to keep the breaking balls down a bit more. But a good outing for now.

We spent a couple of days tooling around Vermont in September. I really liked the vibe of Burlington. Hope to visitation sometime

Its not like the MAGAs need a reason to be historically stupid. They are ****ed in the head.

LOL. I love Vermont, even if it's not really the hippie haven a lot of people make it out to be. And today, I love it even more.

There is nothing wrong with a 9° driver. Actually, it might help some people. The less loft on the clubface, the easier it is to move the ball right and left (hook or cut). Some/many go with a higher loft to help get a higher trajectory of shot to help distance. A nice draw will do that too. You can always move the ball forward or backward (slightly) in your stance, or vary how high you tee the ball to hit a lower or higher shot. Whatever works seems to be the best way. The tee shot is the most important shot of the hole. Trees are 90% air until you try to hit a golf ball through one.

she should probably start a legal defense gofundme now

This was never for us. This has all been for Trump. It would be the grift of all grifts if he could be the one to call the shots on the future development of this stash. The country would definitely benefit but Trump and pals would make Trillions. Elon would love it even more. Even if he wanted to expand, Putin needs to restore wealth back to Russia before he could make any big moves. They are burning through money and still struggling to get through Ukraine.

Putin is angry that Russia is not longer the same size it was before the Russian Revolution in 1917. He feels his historic mission is to restore Russia to that size. He has armies of fawning acolytes who tell him how great an idea that is and that the multi-cultural forces in Europe are the problem. Yes, he wants Poland, the Baltic States and he wants to neutralize the power of the West to stop him.

I don’t think Putin wants Poland. I don’t think he wants any other part of Europe. He wants the same thing Trump wants. Ukraine’s massive rare minerals stash. I didn’t realize quite how much of these crucial materials this small country has the potential of holding. Some estimates are $25 Trillion. This is what everyone is after. Making it even more juicy, 95% is untapped and will need a massive outside investment to gather. I can’t even imagine the amount of money a global conglomerate would pay someone of influence to get in on the ground floor of this motherload. This would be the real deal of the century. Of course, nobody is going to start investing in a massive rare mineral infrastructure until the war is settled. Trump got so pissed yesterday because he thought his boy Marco secured a deal for $500B of what Ukraine already had in place. Sadly for the big boss man, Rubio is a simp loser and got played by Zelenskyy. That would have been the perfect start for Trump to get a foothold on that mineral stash as well as stopping the war. Initially, Putin and Trump are in on this together to steal all the future untapped minerals from Ukraine. I don’t think they trust each other in the long run. I know that neither is very interested is splitting anything with someone else. They want it all, all the time.

This is really good.

Was a good run. Let's start another

Musk didn't wear a suit in the same office. And his toddler, who shouldn't have been there, wiped a booger on Trump's desk. But they won't call that disrespectful?

Bobrob’s 2025 Preseason Prediction #2 – Riley Alan Greene Riley Greene had a breakout season in 2024, playing in over 100 games for the first time in his career, with 24 home runs, 74 RBI, and a 133 OPS+, becoming a well-deserved all-star for the first time. He’s still only 24 years old, so he may not even have peaked just yet. The most impressive area of improvement for Greene was his power. He had his highest slugging percentage (.479), isolated power (.217), and home run rate (4.1 percent) of his career. His ISO and wRC+ (135) ranked third in all of baseball among hitters under the age of 25, behind Bobby Witt, Jr. and Gunnar Henderson. His walk rate of 11 percent was second, slightly lower than Nolan Schaunel’s 11.2 percent, in all of baseball among hitters under 25. This is very impressive and hopefully he can be even better once he reaches his full potential in his prime years. One of the reasons his power improved in 2024 was simply because he hit the ball in the air a lot more. According to Baseball Savant, here were his batted ball stats over the last few years: 2022 – 56.8% GB% | 19.3% FB% | 22.4% LD% 2023 – 48.9% GB% | 21.8% FB% | 28.9% LD% 2024 – 43.6% GB% | 27.7% FB% | 25.4% LD% Increasing his flyball rate from 19.3 percent in 2022 to 27.7 percent in 2024 as well as decreasing his groundball rate of over 50 percent in 2022 to 43.6 percent in 2024 simply allowed him more opportunities to hit the ball out of the park. Another aspect of power is launch angle, and Greene improved his average launch angle from 6.6 degrees in 2023 to 12.2 degrees in 2024. Home run hitters typically average a launch angle of around 20 degrees; a launch angle between 25 to 35 degrees is the sweet spot for hitting a home run. As he continues to mature, I can easily see him hitting around 40 home runs in his prime years. Maybe even a similar type of hitter as Curtis Granderson. Riley Greene’s walk rate is above average, but his strikeout rate (26.7 percent) and stolen bases (4) are not impressive. However, those can be of little concern as long as the power and batting average are great. As long as Riley Greene can stay healthy, he is posed to continue to improve his power going into 2025 and beyond. Experts’ Predictions/Projections: FGDC – 562 AB | .268/.348/.457 | 22 HR | 80 RBI | 6 SB | 67 BB | 158 K Steamer – 576 AB | .268/.348/.456 | 23 HR | 82 RBI | 7 SB | 68 BB | 158 K ZiPS DC – 564 AB | .268/.349/.458 | 23 HR | 80 RBI | 6 SB | 67 BB | 162 K ATC – 533 AB | .265/.345/.454 | 22 HR | 72 RBI | 6 SB | 62 BB | 155 K THE BAT X – 530 AB | .260/.342/.443 | 20 HR | 72 RBI | 6 SB | 63 BB | 155 K OOPSY – 565 AB | .275/.349/.476 | 24 HR | 80 RBI | 8 SB | 62 BB | 164 K RotoChamp – 542 AB | .268/.346/.458 | 22 HR | 76 RBI | 6 SB | 63 BB | 156 K CBS Sports – 473 AB | .275/.360/.499 | 24 HR | 69 RBI | 6 SB | 58 BB | 141 K ESPN – 550 AB | .260/.334/.464 | 24 HR | 71 RBI | 6 SB | 59 BB | 164 K My Prediction: 2024 Prediction – 596 AB | .277/.339/.435 | 16 HR | 61 RBI | 16 SB | 56 BB | 172 K 2024 Actual – 512 AB | .262/.348/.479 | 24 HR | 74 RBI | 4 SB | 64 BB | 156 K 2025 Prediction – 536 AB | .284/.377/.526 | 29 HR | 84 RBI | 5 SB | 78 BB | 158 K